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Report: Spanish services key in Latinos find better jobs

ATLANTA - Many new Hispanic immigrants have trouble finding jobs and establishing their own businesses because of their limited knowledge of English, according to a three-year study of job training programs released Monday by Goodwill Industries.

The project found that new immigrants are so focused on finding jobs that they skip other projects, like learning English, which ultimately hurts their chances of finding good employment and, if they are here illegally, to take the right steps toward legalization.

"The challenge is English, to be able to move up," said JoAnn McLean of Goodwill North Georgia.

The findings stemmed from an effort to reach Latinos more effectively through the 164 Goodwill agencies nationwide that helped nearly a million job seekers last year with career programs. Nearly all agencies reported they're helping an increasing number of Hispanics.

Offering services in Spanish - from booklets to language classes and partnerships with community organizations - is crucial to help develop the Hispanic work force, said Eric Olson, Goodwill's director of work force development.

That's what Goodwill North Georgia is doing, and nearly half of the job seekers it helps in one metropolitan Atlanta area, Gwinnett County, are Hispanic, McLean said.

In some parts of central California, more than half of the Goodwill staff is bilingual, said the agency's John Collins.

Because the agencies raise most of their resources through the sale of donated clothes and household items, their programs have the flexibility to help immigrants regardless of status, Olson said.

The agencies don't ask job seekers about their legal status, but might refer them to legal services if they say they don't have the right documents.